Sunday, May 8, 2011

Renovation of the Church by Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken

Kent Carlson is the pastor of a very successful church. It was based on the Willow Creek model of creating Seeker Sensitive services. They had an attendance of 1,700 and ministry was taking place.

Then Carlson hired Mike Lueken, took his leadership team on a retreat and everything changed.

In Renovation of the Church, these pastors explain how they felt convicted to change the way they did church from focusing on seekers to growing in Christian Formation.

This change has come at a cost. Their attendance has dropped to 700. That's 1,000 people who have left. They have also lost staff members who weren't comfortable with the change.

All this and they still feel that God is moving them in the right direction.

Inside this book you will learn their mistakes, feel their heart's desire to pursue Christlikeness and God's kingdom.

With 12 chapters, you'll discover the hard years of the transition, the mistakes they made during the transition, you'll learn about their hatred for consumerism and how it has practically destroyed the Church. These pastor's talk about what it means to be the true church and then they dive into the areas of outreach and worship.

I particularly enjoyed reading their views on worship and how it needs to focus on the story of God and not on the specific style (think songs) that makes us "feel" good.

This is a book critiquing a model of doing mega-church that many in America are comfortable with. It may even challenge you.